INTERVIEW WITH BERND EICHINGER

What  made  you  adapt  Stefan  Aust's  "The  Baader  Meinhof  Complex"  for  a feature film? 
I had already wanted to make a film about Ulrike Meinhof in 1978. But at the time the topic of German terrorism had not been researched sufficiently. Also, in 1978 I simply didn't  feel competent enough  to  tackle  this multifaceted and difficult subject matter. It's only now that I can safely say that I'm experienced enough as a filmmaker to deal with this pivotal chapter in the history of post-war Germany. But actually, this film has been gestating inside me even longer than 1978. German terrorism and the history of the RAF is a topic that has occupied me since my days as a film student in Munich in the early 70s. I had experienced the student movement of the late 60s as something very positive. The breaking down of authoritarian structures, a newly found solidarity amongst young people, the search for new ways of living and relating to one another - all these things fascinated me and left a deep impression. But then people started talking about using violence as a political instrument and that's when I couldn't follow any  longer.  I  couldn't  see  the  point. When  the movement  became  militant  it  also became authoritarian and  that was unacceptable  to me. When somebody confronts me  with  self-presumed  authority,  I  can't  take  them  seriously.  Nevertheless,  there were a lot of people in my circle of friends who supported this militant stance. I didn't understand  their  point  of  view.  But  precisely  because  I  didn't  understand  their position it has remained so fascinating to me. On the one hand I'm revolted by it, but at  the same  time  I can't get  it out of my head because  it's a mystery  that  I want  to solve.  So  you  could  say  that  my  motivation  to  make  THE  BAADER  MEINHOF COMPLEX was the same as that to make DOWNFALL.

Why did you base the film on Stefan Aust's book?
Stefan Aust's "The Baader Meinhof Complex" is a standard work. His book is the only really  competent  summary  of  what  happened  between  1967  and  the  "German Autumn" of 1977 in connection with the history of the RAF. 

Why did you decide to have Uli Edel direct THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX?
First of all I thought it absolutely necessary to have a German director who is familiar with the subject matter. Also, I knew from the very beginning that the film was going to  break  with  some  of  the  most  fundamental  rules  of  narrative  structure  and dramaturgy  in  cinema:  There  are  no  heroes  in  this  film,  no-one  the  audience  can identify with. There's also no plot  in  the strictest sense, no  linear narrative.  Instead, it's  solely  the monstrosity of events, which grabs  the attention of  the audience and which keeps  the story moving  forward.  I knew  that  the  film would have  to be  like a
wild  whitewater  river  that  envelops  and  compels  the  audience  -  a  river  where  the audience always knows  that at  the end a  thundering waterfall awaits and everything will  come  to  a  violent  finish.  To  create  such  a  cinematic  maelstrom,  you  need  a director who's able to maintain a sense of creative pressure throughout the making of a  film. That  kind  of  intensity  needs  to  be  created  on  the  film  set  on  a  daily  basis, there's no room for slackness. You need a director who can drive a huge juggernaut of  a  movie  machine  -  including  a  large  crew,  an  enormous  group  of  actors  and several  thousand extras - at a breakneck  speed without  losing  control. Worldwide, there are only a handful of such directors, and Uli Edel is one of them. We met on our first day at film school in Munich in 1970. In other words, we've been friends from the very moment we both became  filmmakers.  I've seen every  inch of  celluloid Uli has ever exposed;  I even know his wedding and home movies. We made CHRISTIANE  F.  and  LAST EXIT  TO BROOKLYN  together.  I  have  absolute  trust  in  him  and  his abilities as a  filmmaker.  I know what makes him  tick, and  I can safely say  that of all the film directors around the world alive today Uli is one of best. 

As with DOWNFALL, you also wrote the script to THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX. What were the challenges involved here?
First of all, I faced the problem of how to condense 10 years of history into a feature length  film.  A  traditional  approach  was  impossible.  Instead,  I  decided  to  use  a disjointed  form  of  dramaturgy  that  I  call  "Fetzendramaturgie"  ("shredded dramaturgy"). Rather than a linear narrative, the film consists of puzzle pieces, which the audience has  to piece  together  themselves  in order  to get  the overall picture.  In practical  terms,  this  means  that  characters  appear,  a  lot  of  the  time  they  remain nameless,  and  when  they  play  no  further  part  in  the  story  they  disappear  again. There is no one with whom the viewer can identify, because I did not want hinge the film  emotionally  onto  one  character.  To  side  emotionally with  one  character  would have  automatically  implied  a  certain  interpretation  of  the  film  -  and  that's  exactly what  I wanted  to avoid. On  the contrary,  I wanted  the  film  to ask questions without providing  any  answers.  This was  neither  going  to  be  a  didactic  film  nor  a modern morality play about German terrorism. I was not going to feed people bite-sized, easy to  swallow  answers  to  complex  questions.  After  all,  it's  called  THE  BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX, not "The Baader Meinhof Simplex".

How much artistic license does the script take?
When you're dealing with historical events where people have been killed and others have become killers, you have a responsibility as a filmmaker to be as precise and as thoroughly  researched  as  possible.  There's  only  one  character  in  the  film  who's invented  and  that's  Horst  Herold's  assistant.  Whenever  possible,  I  based  the dialogues on original documents and eyewitness  reports. However,  I did  reduce  the amount of political jargon that was used amongst members of the German Left in the 70s in order to make the dialogue intelligible to today's audiences.
   
How did you and Uli Edel cast the three leads?
There were only  very  few actors  to  choose  from because  there aren't many actors who can play such multifaceted and complex characters as Ulrike Meinhof, Andreas Baader  and  Gudrun  Ensslin.  Additionally,  there  had  to  be  a  certain  degree  of semblance  between  the  actor  and  the  real  person. What we were  also  looking  for was a very distinct chemistry amongst  the  three actors, because  if Meinhof, Baader and Ensslin hadn't met, history might have turned out very differently.   

The  film concentrates not so much on  the RAF's  theories but on  the group's actions. Why?
That was an absolutely  conscious decision. First of all,  I  share Stefan Aust's main concern  as  a  historian,  which  is  to  ask:  what  actually  happened  here,  exactly? Secondly,  the  RAF  decided  to  turn  their  back  on  political  debate  and  to  resort  to violence;  therefore  it's only  logical  that  the  film  follows suit and concentrates not so much on what  the RAF said, but what  they did.  In addition,  I  firmly believe  that we don't define ourselves as humans by what we say but by what we do.

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